Mosquitoes, flies, ticks, fleas and chiggers are arthropods that carry a wide range of blood borne diseases which readily infect humans and animals when bitten. These diseases include among other things, lyme disease, ehrlichiosis, tularemia, vectored borreliosis (Masters disease), encephalitis, West Nile virus, Dengue Fever, malaria and others.
Bedbugs of genus the Cimex, particularly the species lectularius and hemipterus, are small crawling blood-sucking insects that feed on human, bird and bat blood. In humans, bedbugs rarely appear as the result of a lack of hygiene. Rather, bedbugs now appear more and more frequently in resort hotels, motels, apartments, college dormitories, cruise ships and airplanes.
In past years, the widespread use of insecticides such as DDT and other pesticides resulted in a drastic decline the populations of these pests. However, many biting arthropods have developed a resistance to insecticides. Moreover, these chemicals frequently pose a threat to humans and other non targeted animals.
Efforts to trap mosquitoes, biting flies, ticks, fleas, chiggers, biting midges, bedbugs and other biting arthropods have used a number of techniques including sticky paper, electrostatic traps and physical traps, sprays and chemical attractants. Of the latter, carbon dioxide has been used alone or in combination with certain organic chemicals, in combination with insect traps, to increase trapping efficiency by attracting insects to the vicinity of the trap.
Various attempts to provide carbon dioxide as a means of attracting biting arthropods have been made. For example in U.S. Patent Application No. 2009/0145019, Nolan et al. disclose a bedbug trap fitted with “a tank containing compressed CO2 . . . . The carbon dioxide source preferably emits CO2 via an outlet positioned proximate to [a] heating source.” [drawing references omitted] However, although the disclosed apparatus of Nolan is capable of releasing carbon dioxide controllably and over sustained periods, a pressurized tank of CO2 is quite heavy. The trap and tank are, therefore not transported and set up easily. In addition, mechanical breaching of the high pressure carbon dioxide tank may result in an explosion.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,506,473, Waters discloses a trap in which a “carbonate salt,” including a bicarbonate salt is brought into contact with a reservoir of aqueous acid solution. However while this apparatus is lighter and more transportable than that disclosed in Nolan, the carbonate salt and acid solution are disclosed to be brought together all at once by breaching a bladder and allowing the contents of separated chambers to mix, thus resulting in the evolution of a large amount of gas over a short period of time. Such a method is unsuitable for sustained trapping operation, which requires release of carbon dioxide over a period of hours or days. Further, the rate of carbon dioxide release should be controllable to accommodate the individual characteristics of the target biting arthropod.
In U.S. Pat. No. 6,920,716, Kollars et al. disclose a non-electrical carbon dioxide generating arthropod trap. In this disclosure the combination of baking soda and vinegar is used to generate carbon dioxide gas with the optional addition of urea, lactic acid, and ammonia as further attractants. In this device the dry sodium bicarbonate powder (baking soda) is placed in a separate reactor container and aqueous solution of ascetic acid (vinegar) is dripped into the reactor container to produce carbon dioxide. However, this method of mixing the reactants leads to powder caking and inconsistent gas flow rates.
Therefore, there remains a need for an easily transportable trap, fitted with a carbon dioxide generator capable of controllably releasing carbon dioxide. These needs are addressed in the subject matter disclosed and claimed herein.